NRL 2 years ago

Rabbits looking to keep the kennel quiet

A game not to miss tonight is the South Sydney Rabbitohs play host to the Canterbury Bulldogs. The Bulldogs need to win to keep their spot in the eight whereas Souths just need to keep winning to cement a top 4 position by seasons end. It’s a very important part of the season now and both teams know what it takes to win do or die matches. It doesn’t feel all that long ago that we played the Bulldogs in the Grand Final last year.

I feel as though this match could get a fair few supporters to attend it. On the Easter Weekend we played the Bulldogs and it was definitely a match that didn’t come without controversy. In fact it came with arrests. You couldn’t forget the match after all that went on and it’s no surprise that the build up to this match has been very heated. I keep thinking to myself that this could be one of the biggest regular crowds this season and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be.

The Bulldogs will feel very confident coming into this match as underdogs. Last week they demolished a struggling Gold Coast Titans team 36-14 and really made a fist of it without hooker Michael Lichaa who succumbed to a season ending injury. This match will be hard for them without him, but they know they have someone who can fill in quite nicely in Damien Cook. Talk about a player who has been very patient in Reserve Grade waiting for his chance in First Grade, Cook has done exactly that.

You might also like

Results are hard to come by in this competition as it is the best in the world. South Sydney will count themselves lucky that “Bully” is out for one week. It didn’t look all that bad, but there’s no doubt that the footy g-ds were with South Sydney. In the Hooker position this week we have Paul Carter who should be able to do the job that was left by Mr Luke.

South Sydney will have to play through the forwards if they want to win this. The Bulldogs backline is very skilful and when they get the ball in their hands it’s almost try time every time. You can’t go wrong with a Hodkinson and Mbye pairing and they have shown it for so many weeks. I have a slight suspicion that the Bulldogs might be a little bit more desperate than the Rabbits, but I wouldn’t write off South Sydney just yet.

Souths forwards are more mobile and definitely able to step their way through defenders more. If the boys are on their game they should be able to make the likes of Kasiano, Eastwood and Klemmer very tired. Although running through the middle may be more difficult, using our backline may pay off. McQueen has outstanding footwork, and when you have Stewart coming off the bench it wouldn’t surprise me if that was a move to tire out the Bulldogs forwards even more.